From bestselling author Melanie Summers, comes a heartfelt and uplifting tale of love, loss, and letting go…After losing her husband, writer Abigail Carson has all but given up on life. Having spent the last year cocooned in her Manhattan apartment, Abigail is suddenly forced to find a new home where she can stretch her dwindling savings. Intent on isolation, she moves to a tiny village in Nova … to a tiny village in Nova Scotia where she’ll have no one to interrupt her solitude.
Little does Abigail realize that small-town life offers far less privacy than the big city. With neighbors knocking on the door bearing homemade treats and invitations, Abby soon finds herself immersed in the lives of the people of South Haven. She forms an unlikely friendship with Liam Wright, the handyman renovating her dilapidated cottage, and his daughter, seven-year-old Olive.
As the dark cloud engulfing Abigail lifts, she starts to think she may have found love again. But just as Abigail is ready to leap, she discovers Liam carries with him a shocking secret that will ultimately cause everything to unravel. Abigail must decide if she will turn away from his pain or open her heart in the most hopeless of circumstances.
Insightful, heartwarming, and filled with hope, The After Wife reminds us of the importance of human connection and the inseparable nature of love and survival.
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I don’t know what to say other than Melanie Summers has positively blown me away with this beautiful, poignant story of loss and love. It’s a masterpiece I think everyone should read. I don’t normally reread books, but I will make an exception in the case of The After Wife. It’s a work of art.
I loved this book. This is less a romance than it is a coming-of-age story, except the person coming-of-age is in her 40s and widowed and has moved lock, stock, and barrel to the Canadian wilderness after her husband dies and leaves her alone in New York City, where she can’t afford to live.
Instead, Abigail uses the opportunity to start fresh – by doing what she’d always planned to do with her late husband, retiring to a country cottage, where hopefully she can start writing again. She does – eventually – but she also learns about what she gave up when she married, and in learning that, learns to find herself again.
That she also finds herself falling for the cute widowed contractor with the cute kid is really more of a side-plot than the actual storyline. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed that part too, but I really, really loved Abigail. She made poor choices sometimes – but it was always clear that she was making them with the best, if flawed, intentions, and she was always sympathetic.
The book has an HFN ending, with an upcoming event that will definitely impact Abigail’s life. But I would dearly love to read what happens to these characters, and how they deal with the next challenge in their lives, and see them overcome it and find each other again.
This is my second book by Melanie Summers. I really wish I’d started with this one, because it’s absolutely the strongest of the two, so much so that I couldn’t believe that they were written by the same person. I will definitely be on the lookout for more of her books again.
She has lost her husband and now she needs to find a cheaper place to live. She finds it hoping to have peace and quiet but that is not going to happen. She starts to feel something for him but he has a secret which may just ruin everything. Will she stay? Will she leave? See what she does
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This is a delightful, beautifully written, sad but heartwarming story about a young widow starting over. Abby, an author, loses her husband Isaac & shuts herself away for nearly two years, at which time she is forced to move. They had once spoken about moving to the Canadian maritimes, & so Abby decides to do it on her own. She buys a house, which in its need for extensive repairs & remodeling, helps her to heal from her loss.
I very strongly recommend this book. It was a joy to read, made me laugh more than a few times & features an adorable cat, Walt Whitman.
Thank you to Netgalley, the author Melanie Summers, and the publisher Indigo Group/Xpresso Book Tours for the free ARC of this lovely book in return for an honest review.
REVIEWED BY SUNNY
What a beautiful story written by Melanie Summers. The difference in Abigail from the beginning to the conclusion of THE AFTER WIFE was amazing. The self-discoveries she made with the help of the little Canadian townsfolk, in particular, Liam and Olive, were well-written. The parallels in Liam and Abby’s life were notable, yet how they handled them was vastly different. The contrast was real and had such an impact on the transformations that took place, especially in Abby. So many characters brought her clarity and I enjoyed the depth developed for each person.
Wow, just wow!
Wow Melanie… that was an incredible story. I can see why it took you so long to finish it and why you kept putting it down and going back to it. I can’t imagine the process writing it. BUT… I’m so glad you put this out in the universe for us to enjoy this heartbreaking story. It’s going on my all time favorites list and it’s sure to be one that I pick up and read throughout the years. These characters will stay with me for a long time – wondering…
I am a super fan of yours – I’ve now read all your hilarious books (this one aside- although there were some good laughs in this one). Your writing is outstanding and the characters you build are a true art.
If you are a lover of a well written book. I encourage you to pick up this book and honestly every other book by this author. You won’t be disappointed and you’ll be in for some highly entertaining reading.
Happy reading…enjoy!
This book is a perfect mix of grief and heartbreak, but also hope and love. Wonderful characters, engaging story and and lots of emotion to keep readers turning the pages.
I highly recommend this book to fans of the women’s fiction genre.
Such a well written story…had me stuck within the pages from the beginning! This story broke my heart! (Have tissues handy! I LOVE tearjearkers!) I loved the characters. They were well written and true to life. The plot was wonderful!
5 stars
The After Wife is a wonderful story of the aftermath of grief and the subsequent healing process. I have not previously read any books by this author so didn’t quite know what to expect. But I will definitely be looking for more to read in the future. This was a heartfelt and heartbreaking story. I enjoyed the small town community characters that middle-aged, newly widowed, Abbie comes to know and value as she starts over with a move from NYC to a small village in Canada. The characters are strong, realistic, and relatable. Some emotionally evocative twists to the plot that keep the reader’s interest wondering where the story will go now. A great story of forgiveness and love and their healing power in one’s life. Tavia Gilbert did a great job with narration, which made for an enjoyable listening experience. I listened to a library copy of the audiobook and was not required to write a review.
“Did you ever feel like maybe the life you built for yourself isn’t necessarily the one you should be living?”
A profound read. The first 50% read easily and without much character growth.
But thereafter Abby undergoes what one can only call a “losing the shutters” moment thanks to her best friend/agent Lauren.
She starts to review her life and see how her choices influenced everyone around her and herself.
What started off as a woman mourning her husband turns into a woman finding her identity after losing it in her marriage.
A wonderful ending that tugs on the heartstrings – one I definitely didn’t see coming or could even predict.
The After Wife was an interesting tale. I admittedly struggled to get into the book, but about 35% in I was hooked. The emotional rollercoaster of the main characters and the small town feel draws you in to the story. Waiting for the main characters to click was my biggest hangup. I will definitely give this author another shot in the future.
I was so curious to read The After Wife because it’s so different from Melanie Summers’ previous works and I wasn’t disappointed.
Hours after I have closed this book it’s still difficult for me to write a review because whenever I think to this story the only thing I want to do is to curl up in a fetal position and cry, but I’ll try because it deserves to be shared and recommended to all people who love beautiful,emotional,heartbreaking,humorous and realistic tales.
Abby has lost her husband of 15 years and the sorrow and grieving are too much to bear in the house they shared in New York so she decides to move to a little canadian village. Here our heroine will meet a lot of people who’ll try to be part of her life even if she’d like to be left alone. But her plans to live like a hermit are ruined by a charming builder and his lovely daughter.
I liked Abby with her flaws, her fear to let love in again is so relatable but sometimes you have to take a leap and find out what life brings you in order to feel alive.
What a great read! Warning it may be an emotional roller coaster ride but it’s so worth it. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and you’ll breath a sigh, or two, of relief. A story that’s heartwarming, uplifting and enjoyable.
Abigail lost her husband of 15 years and is trying to find a new life without him. She decides to move to Nova Scotia to heal and move on with her life. She soon realizes living in a small town isn’t an easy place to be left alone and finds herself surrounded by the people of South Haven.
She purchases a small fixer upper and meets Liam, a handyman and hires to fix up her new home. He’s a widower and a father to his young daughter. Just when Abigail thinks she’s finally healing and finding love again, a shocking secret that Liam is carrying may make her rethink her decision to find love again.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was an uplifting and heartwarming novel about a woman and a man coming to terms with their past and their grief. Abigail Carson is an author whose spark has dried up when her husband Isaac died. She is forced to leave her Manhattan apartment and chooses to move to a small village in Nova Scotia to heal and try to write again. She purchases a fixer-upper and thus meets handyman Liam, a widower who is also nursing a broken heart because of the death of his wife. Liam has the added burden of caring for his daughter Olivia, a precocious child whose wisdom alone makes the book worth reading. Olivia is the one who helped me to believe in hope for the future. The discoveries that Abigail and Liam make together and separately are the central stories of the book. The chapters are short, but there is a lot of emotional detail packed into each page. Fans of women’s fiction will enjoy the book and will want to read more from this talented author!
Disclaimer
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author and from Booksprout. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255, “Guides Concerning the Use of Testimonials and Endorsements in Advertising.”
A truly emotional ride of a romance.
This book is truly an emotional read. I know… I say that a lot. But I am so not kidding this time. Abigail is a widow, trying to adapt to her new reality without her husband of fifteen years, Isaac. After a year of deep grief, she has a dream where Isaac tells her where she needs to be and knowing she has to move, she follows his advice. That’s when she meets Liam, the new handyman she hires to fix up her new home. Liam is a widower with a young daughter who slowly ends up showing Abigail what love really is.
Somehow, I ended up missing the author’s note about this book at the beginning. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have read it if I had seen it, and as much as this book made me ugly cry, (and it did in several places), it also made me laugh out loud and sigh. It also made me realize that without the balances in life we wouldn’t be able to appreciate the highs and lows.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Abby is still grieving her husband’s death. She hasn’t written a word in months, and now her publisher wants the advance back. Just to top out that wonderful day, her co-op is purchasing additional property, and her share of the buy-in is more she can afford, leaving her only option to sell her shares and move. She needs a complete change of scenery, so buys a cottage in Cape Breton, sight unseen. Her new home needs more than just a good cleaning, so she hires Liam, jack of all trades, to handle the renovations. He’s a widower with a precocious daughter, Olive, and theirs is a very sad story as well.
I absolutely love this bittersweet story. Well, I do now. I started the book, read a couple of chapters, and thought nope. But I hate to give up on a book that seems to hold so much promise, so I went back and started over a few days later. There are just so many good things about the book. I love the quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Sometimes, I wasn’t sure what they meant until the chapter was finished, and then it was crystal clear. I love Abby’s sense of humor, and her sarcasm as well. Lauren, Abby’s best friend and agent – she and Abby play off each other so well. Lauren’s support, and the banter between them, helped to lighten the mood when it was so sad reading about Isaac’s death. But Lauren’s no pushover – she gives Abby an earful at the time when Abby doesn’t think that she can handle it, but it’s exactly what she needs at exactly the right time. I’m curious about Abby’s obsession with Poptarts. Olive is a little scene-stealer – so cute, so well-adjusted despite the tremendous loss in her life, smart, well-mannered. And she makes Abby wonder if she made the right decision by not having children of her own. And Liam – OMG! What a hand he’s been dealt in this life, and yet he never shows a down side publicly. He and Abby have some outrageously hilarious conversations, and just fall into a wonderful friendship, both wondering if they can have more. I love the cat – Walt Whitman – and all the quirky neighbors and small-town gossip. And Abby’s tenuous relationship with her mother – their conversations broke my heart sometimes. While the book may not have the ending that I hoped for, it certainly has the perfect ending for this story. I’ll be thinking about this book for a long time to come.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Loves Heals and Hurts
This book is a wonderful bit of Women’s Literature. It is full of loving and loss and second bites of the apple. The plot is totally engaging. This will make your eyes tear up at least once, probably more. The book is very easy to read and is hard to put down
I loved this book. It’s going on my list of all-time favorites. Heartbreaking and real and funny and truly fantastic writing. Abby, Liam, and Olive are characters that will stay with me for a long time to come.
Thank you to Netgalley, Expressobooktours and the Author for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I absolutely LOVED this book! I loved the characters, the setting and just the entire story line.
Heartwarming and yet bittersweet.
My first book by this Author and won’t be my last.
The author has destroyed me with this book… My soul can’t take it… Anyone who has experience what Abby has gone through with Isaac and Liam will love and hate the story in equal amounts. I applaud the author for writing such a heartfelt story… It’s a book everyone, and I really mean everyone, should read.